Tuesday, March 31, 2015

So, nine 'Gun Crow' states. Currently. When you look at the history of gun control, the underlying theme is "people with swarty skin and darker are getting their hands on guns, and we don't want that!" up until 1965. Gun control after that has to be a bit more sneaky with it's racism and rights denials. Using insinuation. Instead of saying 'no guns for black people' say 'Saturday night specials are banned'. Disparate impact, and all that. And people that look down their noses on black people often are the same people that look down their noses at people that like guns and aren't black and live in flyover country. Funny enough, this is the group of people that are tapped for the political class, too.

Anyway. The ones highlighted in bold, above, actually had other Jim Crow laws of various types, in the past, according to wikipedia.

Which seems odd, as a few deep south states aren't on that list. (for example, Alabama... the state with Selma and Birmingham and Governor Wallace and Bull Connor.. not listed there, were there unwritten codes in Alabama? Bet your bippy...) Which leads me to believe that either the list is incomplete, or the Black Codes were unwritten laws in some jurisdictions. Just as strict, but not as 'official.'

It's an oddly pervasive sea to sea list, I had not expected. Montana? I mean, really.

Here's hoping in 50 years we look back to today and note there are no longer any May Issue rights violators and hasn't been, legally, for some time.

Monday, March 30, 2015

I kinda assumed Shia LeBoef would have playing the annoying green as grass rookie in the tank. Instead, he was good.
Hey, isn't that other guy the deputy from Walking Dead that somehow managed to keep his taut muscley chest waxed even during a Zombocalypse? Yes it is.

And hey, THAT's the FBI agent from that Wahlberg movie Shooter. And the battalion commander with a Boston accent? The evil British dude in The Patriot. Wow, I know all these guys.

People told me I'd be bummed by the gritty hopeless realism. Pfff. Once you've seen the first ten minutes of Saving Private Ryan it take a lot to out-grit that experience.

It is good to know that Hitler would have sex with me if I gave him a chocolate bar.

Saturday, March 28, 2015

in special Amtrak trains to take us to the FEMA camps in the Dakotas...

How come whenever they do this sort of thing it's always in Red States? It tends to gin up the paranoiacs the right tends to have. But would it hurt to do these exercises in a Blue state? Let them be a different kind of paranoid for once?

Meh, maybe they do but we don't hear as much about them because the Blue model cares less about signs of the One World Government takeover of the US with UN black helicopters. And such.

One thing about taking these 1911 Armorers classes? It's RUINED me for factory made guns. It's ruined me for most high end guns and even most custom guns.

"Well, T-Bolt, I guess you are regretting going with the 1911 instead of something good, like my Glock/M&P/HaitchUndKaye. Hur hur hur!"

It's ruined THOSE for me too. I didn't take the Glock armorer class (I want to) but the little snippets I've seen in a bleed over to the 1911 classes? Those modern semi-autos are similar, if less finicky to correct. And more disposable.

Taking the 1911 classes didn't make me an expert 1911 gunsmith. It made me a near expert 1911 critic. There are some things to do that are cheap or easy to make any 1911 better. Things with extractor tension, ejector shaping, or an adjustment you can make to the slide stop to make it better. There are some parts that are more drop-in for me now because I can easily do some of the minor fitting, confidently. Great.

The trick is, now, for me, if I ran into a factory 1911 that had few flaws, and, most importantly, had a halfway decent lockup, out of the boss, with the barrel hood, barrel lugs, and barrel to slide fit... I mean you were really lucky there... All I'd want to do then is trigger/sear/hammer work. That would be a great gun, that I could do preventative maintenance on, easily, and stay ahead of it.

THAT's the class I want to take now. JUST the jeweler type work filing and fitting the trigger guts. If the sights are already good, and the trigger is tuned, the gun can be loose and still be great. I want 5 weekends of just stoning the trigger parts. Even if I am just making a good trigger 5 times for one gun.

I encourage them to buy a safe to secure a first firearm in before buying a gun. But I also need to encourage them to buy a holster soon after getting the gun. Even if they NEVER intend to ever carry it outside the house or range. For just in case, so they don't have to shove it in their front pants under their belt and then end up serving as an example to others when they ND. (Don't forget trigger guard cover is the most important part of a n00b holster...)

I was trying to come up with a list of holster makers that meet minimum functional requirements at the lowest cost. When they get more enthused about toting they can do their own research to get the high quality fancy expensive stuff with exotic leathers and whatnot.

But I don't know a list, off the top of my head. Oh, I know some yes. Comp-tac, Galco, Safariland, Bianchi... I steer them away from Fobus and Uncle Mikes unless it is just a pocket holster for a j fram. And Serpa because I don't like that button's reliability.

Lists of holster manufactures are out there, but which meet the criteria?

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

When you put in a gun to get worked on at this gunsmith, you have to initial a buncha stuffs on the order form. Like, for instance, how the cost may go up to correct a serious safety issue if he finds it when deep in the guts of the gun you are getting repaired. Like, say, if the hammerhooks were badly damaged. You only can see that on a detail strip, but gah, I want that fixed when discovered.

But my favorite part was "an additional $5 may be charged every time you call to check on the status of a build or repair." Now, this is one of those 'usually you don't have to worry about this' situations, but you do actually get guys that put down a deposit for a custom gun build from the ground up ordered on a Saturday afternoon, and the guy calls on Tuesday knowing the shop is closed on Sundays and Mondays wondering if his gun is done and ready to be picked up.

Dude, really?! He said it would be at least a year before he could start it, as there is a queue ahead of you. And then the Jack-Wagon calls every day thereafter. Five dollars, five dollars, five dollars... You remind the enthusiastic fantasist with unreasonable expectations that it's costing him money, but you do tack it on.

You know the type. For some reason this personality regularly visits gunstores.

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

And I, personally, had issue with the damn ejector. DAMN YOU SPRINGFIELD ARMORY. You and me? We're done. Bastages. How hard is it to drill a hole for the pin? Stupid epoxied ejectors. DONE!

Anyhoo. Other than that it went great for me. Looks like the class, in future, will have to be 5 full weekends instead of 4 or 4 and a half. It's still a great class. But 1911 gunsmithing will break your heart even if you are not a n00b. With luck my issue will be fixed by the next class, then we can do the hammer sear fitment, then done. Extractor tension, I am happy with. But that is easy to fix. Ejector tuning, once mounted on the gun, isn't hard either. I am confident I can do that unsupervised if I have to. But stoning the hammer hooks or the sear? Nope.

If you can do that, just the hammer hooks and sear, good, you can make some serious bank smithing. All this other stuff we've been doing is just to make lockup tighter. Add a good trigger in the mix, and you have a really good gun. Just do the trigger, and you have a really decent gun. Trigger and sights, quick turnaround when you are skilled, and half the problem. The other half is lockup. 85%+ of the class has been getting better, tighter lockup.

You master those two big things and the next step is custom 1911s from the bare frame up.

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Anyhoo. I have to go type a very angry letter. On a manual typewriter. So I can hit the keys hard, as though I was angry.

Good Advice

"You never select a shotgun as your primary anti-zombie firearm. It's great for onesy twosey, but zombies travel in hordes. The reload time is onerous, and the ammo, while effective, is heavy and bulky and short ranged."

About Me

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We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.